Wishing Well
by northpeach
Summary: Her name wasn't always 'Kagome'. There were days she hated that simple fact. There were other days when she accepted that and her determination to live up to the name she carried now overshadowed the other emotions. And then, the day came when she was proud and happy to bear that name. The day of her birthday. The day of the well. The day she would be truly trapped as 'Kagome'. SI
1. Chapter 1

She didn't know how long it was.

Between her last breath and the comforting darkness. Between screams and chaos and red _redsomuchred_ that she coulnd't help but remember. Logically it was more than seconds, more than minutes. It could have been hours, or days, but she refused to think of the time as going past weeks, past months and years. Still, she knew something was wrong, floating in the darkness.

It was comforting.

But she didn't know how long it had been.

She had a family, she could remember that much. A sister. Maybe a brother? Definitely parents.

As she pondered these things, a bright light lit up her silent world. Curious, she attempted to stretch out her hands, but they didn't cooperate with her, so she settled for listening. Voices. She could hear many voices. Some were low, harsh and coarse. Like fingernails over chalk.

As the light came closer and glowed brighter, she could hear the voice of a woman. Smooth and melodic with a soothing _thrum_ of power underlying it. There was a bright burst of fuzzy warmth and she knew no more.

* * *

Her mother held her in her arms, her precious daughter, with her bright blue eyes and a small tuft of already thick black hair. A tired but pleased smile lit up her face as she held her newborn daughter to her chest as the infant cried.

"There, there, my good girl. Your name is Kagome. Ka-go-me. Nice to meet you, Kagome-chan!"

At her words, the child's crying stopped and a barely noticeable glow shone briefly in her chest. Her mother smiled and laughed softly.

"Blessed by the gods, my Kagome-chan."


	2. Chapter 2

She didn't know when she first realized it. It could have been when the gibberish the woman spoke began to sounds like _words_ , like questions and phrases, or when those words began to sound like a _language._ Japanese, to be precise. She was an American. Americans spoke English. So did most of the world. She had never been to Japan. So she stopped and wondered why the people around her were speaking Japanese.

She considered her last memories. They were hazy at best, but there was a raising sense of panic and she choked on a lungful of air as a part of her remembered, remembered _so clearly_ _so much redred_ and _she couldn't breath._

Strong hands grasped around her suddenly small body, brought her close to warmth and she took a breath, the urge to cry fading rapidly. That simple action brought clarity to her mind and for an instant, she _knew_ _exactly_ what happened to her. However, that realization quickly faded and her mind really couldn't handle that very large about of information an infant, such as she was now, was ever meant to process. So she forgot. Forgot to screams, and the _noise_ and the pain, the burning pain. She forgot the red that stained her hands and simply closed her eyes and _slept._

* * *

A couple years had passed before she remembered again. Three years old and she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She froze, her breath catching in her lungs. Staring at her reflection, her _impossible_ reflection in the mirror as her jii-chan called for her and her mother was clearly visible in the kitchen.

 _Black hair. Blue eyes. Pale skin, Japanese._

They called her 'Kagome'.

 _Brown hair, with a red sheen, just like her mother. Brown eyes like her father and American._

She remembered.

Remembered the pain and the confusion.

Higurashi Kagome was not always called that name. The name she once went by was that of an American who had grand dreams and plans of traveling the world as a doctor. Traveling to third world countries and helping people. She was only two years through medical school when she was invited to a gala by a childhood friend. The one time she decided to take a brake from studying and while she really can't recall what happened exactly, she remembers gunshots and voices in foreign languages screaming commands.

She remembers as her life bled out on a polished floor.

It wasn't her death that confused her. She was training to be a doctor, death was a part of life, so it wasn't that. It was the fact her name was _Higurashi Kagome_ with _blue eyes_ and _black hair_. She lived on a shrine in Tokyo, Japan. She had been told stories by her jii-chan about the mysterious well on their property with a warning never to go near it.

As she stared into the mirror, a tear slid down her pale cheeks.

"Kagome-chan?"

Whirling around, she locked gazes with her mother.

 _Higurashi Kagome's mother._

"What's wrong?" the woman asked, blending down to eye level, concern displayed plain on her face.

She made a decision.

The other person she had been was without a doubt, dead and gone, while she was here now, alive and well. She would try to live up to the name of Higurashi Kagome. Try so her new mother would be proud of her. And when Souta came along, she would be the best big sister to make up for the time she would eventually spend in the Feudal Era. This, Kagome decided and swore to herself as she smiled her brightest at her mother.

"I," she exclaimed fervently, "I want to be a miko!"

There was surprise in her mother's face, but her jii-chan heard her declaration. The old man came through from the kitchen with a toothy smile on his face.

"Atta girl, Kagome-chan! Come here and I'll tell you all about the history of the Shikon no Tama and all the demons that used to roam Japan!"

At the fond exasperation her mother shot at her jii-chan, Kagome nodded vigorously.

She didn't really read the manga called _Inuyasha_ , but she knew the basics. Camping trips and archery lessons were at the very top of her rapidly forming list. She needed to prepare.

Darting after her grandpa as he launched into a tale of wishes and sacred jewels, Kagome promised any god listening to her, she would do her best to be Higurashi Kagome.


	3. Chapter 3

"Happy birthday to me," newly fifteen year old Higurashi Kagome sings softly to herself in the early morning light. She swings her legs over the side of her bed and lifts her head to gaze into the mirror propped in the corner. Tousled black hair, cut to her chin shining with a sheen of blue as the sunlight hit it from between her curtains. Blue eyes, still blurry from sleep and a tanned, lithe body. It is both a familiar and unfamiliar sight that she sees.

She is average height and while some call her beautiful, everyone agrees she is smart.

A prodigy, everyone says. _Different, they whisper behind her back._

Higurashi Kagome is a champion archer, an off-an-on martial artist, and scholarship student only a year away from graduation. She doesn't have friends, merely acquaintances, as she seem to refer spending most of her time around the elderly and her teachers. There's almost the fact that most believe that she is cold, aloof and arrogant. It's actually because she has no need to make connections as she isn't going to be living in this age so she doesn't see the need to get attached, but they don't know that.

She is a mystery, everyone agrees, sometimes take off from school for weeks at a time, only to return and pick up where she left off with ease. No one really believes her when she says she's sick. But her grades don't suffer so her teachers let it go. No one knows where she goes, only that she does, and her mother and younger brother do not enlighten on the mystery of Higurashi Kagome.

Those that ask her grandfather are told a story of how his beloved granddaughter is the last _true_ miko with power in this day and age. When they press for more information, he only says that poor Kagome-chan is forced to isolate herself in order to cleanse her body from the toxins of the pollutions in the air. They accept that as an answer because everyone knows when Higurashi Kagome returns, she seems almost _divine_. No one asks, as the girl seems to be set apart with her old and fiery eyes, the intensity of her passion for archery and the way she goes through schoolwork like a demon possessed.

None have ever guessed though. The truth, that is.

She just waiting and planning and hoping the day comes sooner that she'll fall down the well and truly be _Higurashi Kagome._

So when Kagome comes downstairs for breakfast singing that song under her breath, almost humming in deilght, a small smile stretches her lips as she goes about her morning chores, her mother gains a knowing look in her eyes. Kagome is almost dancing, twirling in circles and smiling happily at her little brother Souta, kissing his cheek to the boy's exaggerated disgust.

The Higurashi Matriarch has always known her daughter was bless by the gods. The way she always seem to be aware of what was happening around her from the moment she was born. The way her daughter has always shone with an almost invisible light. The _purity_ that is so clearly seen around her, like an aura. Still, she knows the gods have chosen her for something special. She believes her daughter already knows and from the way she is acting, she knows _today is the day._

Still, when her son comes running from the wellhouse, panicked and screaming as the sun sets, Kagome's mother is worried and concerned. When she heard of the demon that rose from the depths of the Bone-Eater's Well and pulled her daughter into the darkness, she fears for her safety. When Souta says he couldn't find her body at the bottom, that even though he searched after the light that flared up all around the well faded, she calms.

 _Today,_ she thinks quietly to herself as she assures her distraught son that Kagome will return, _is the day my Kagome is called by the gods._

* * *

When Kagome opens her eyes to take in the bottom of the well, she in unsure of how she should proceed. On one hand, she has been preparing for this her entire life. Honing her skills as much as she could, desperately trying to find her spiritual powers beyond looking behind her and learning bit and pieces of first-aid. She knows she is going to change things, she only wishes some higher power would let her know what is okay to change. For one, does the shattering of the Jewel _have_ to happen? For her and Inuyasha to go on a journey, it must. Does she have to let Kikyo resurrect from a piece of her soul?

Kagome thinks and ponders on this as she gathers her feet under her and reaches for the nearest vine to climb up the sides of the well.

So many things, so many mistakes turned out good in the end. She has tried to avoid thinking of her future over the years. But she really can't put it off any longer, she knows as she swings a leg over the weather-beaten wood framing the well. She sits for a moment in the quiet, noticing she can _feel_ her spiritual powers more clearly than ever in her entire life.

Slowly, she stands and turns toward the towering tree, the Goshinboku.

 _Inuyasha is there_ , she thinks to herself as she takes a step forward.

She is wearing her school uniform of a sailor top, white and green, with the short skirt and the loafers that are seriously not practical for use beyond walking on smooth asphalt. Still, she pushes on, brushing aside branches laden with leafs and bushes inhabited by spiders - _(she hopes she doesn't develop arachnophobia from this)_ \- and comes to a halt in the clearing. Kagome sucks in her breath, taken aback at what she sees.

 _Inuyasha_.

She has seen this before, in the anime, she _knows_ , but actually _seeing it before her eyes_ is something different entirely. The old style of clothing, even for five hundred years in the past. That beautiful silver hair crowned with dogs ears and those golden eyes hidden by his lids. She goes closer, climbing over the vines that have grown around him in the past fifty years and with a dawning sense of excitement, reaches out her hands…

 _Rub, rub, rub._

She very quietly squeals under her breath because - _ohmigod they're so soft!_ \- before she steps back. Only a couple seconds pass, but she decides to reach up again, this time for his hair. And she confirms, that yes, Yura of the Hair spoke the truth. The hanyo's hair is tangled and dirty, with almost all the ends very visibly split. She smiles to herself. No matter, she'll fix that soon enough.

The villagers take that moment to emerge from the tree lines and shout accusations and _shoot arrows at her._ When they roughly pull her from the tree and despite her protests, tie her up and throw her over a burly man's shoulders, she silently laments anime ever showing this. She's forgotten, but people from this period of Japan, do not bathe as much as they should.

Kagome can't wait to hurry up and meet Kaede.

 **A/N Hah! I updated! It's been a while since I've read or watched _Inuyasha_ so also due to the self-insert/reincarnation thing Kagome has got going on, she's probably going to be a little out of character. **

**Just a little.**

 **Advice and critiques are extremely helpful!**

 **Thanks for reading, leave a review!**

 **Yours,**

 **NP**


End file.
